Sectional filing device



Nov. 14, 1961 KOHLER 3,008,581

SECTIONAL FILING DEVICE Filed Jan. 18, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. 14, 1961 'r. N. KOHLER 3,008,581

SECTIONAL FILING DEVICE Filed Jan. 18, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,008,581 SECTIONAL FILING DEVICE Theodore N. Kohler, Kirkwood, Mo., assignor to Western Textile Products Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Filed Jan. 18, 1961, Ser. No. 83,503 16 Claims. (Cl. 21111) This invention relates to filing devices, and more particularly to a sectional filing device for holding musical record jackets and the like.

Among the several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of the filing device readily formed by a plurality of individual interlocking but separable dividers; the provision of such dividers which may be separately acquired as needed and added to a group of previously acquired dividers to build up and increase the capacity of an assembly of previously acquired dividers; the provision of a sectional filing device of the class described which allows record jackets and the like held thereby conveniently to be spread apart for observation and selection thereof; the provision of such a sectional filing device which minimizes warping of records in their jackets; the provision of a filing device adapted to accept both thick and thin items to be filed, such as single-record and multi-record albums; and the provision of components for forming a sectional filing device which are economical to manufacture and simple and reliable in use.

The invention accordingly comprises the constructions hereinafter described, the scope of the invention being indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which several of various possible embodiments of the invention are illustrated,

FIG. 1 is a perspective of a divider component made according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective of a spacer component of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a plurality of dividers assembled to form a sectional filing device;

FIG. 4 is an end view of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing several normally vertical record holders or jackets located between dividers and pushed into viewing position, the jackets being diagrammatically sectioned, the contained records being omitted.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a divider unit of this invention, generally designated at 1, is shown to comprise a thin upstanding rib or fin portion 3, a channel or generally 'C-shap ed tubular female portion 5 and a generally T-sh-aped male portion 7. These are preferably formed integrally of a flexible or bendable extruded plastic shaped by extrusion from a suitable die. They may be made, for example, of an acrylon nitrile butadiene-styrene copolymer, which is sold under the trade name of Oycolac by M-arbon Chemical Company, so-called high-impact styrene, so-called rigid vinyl or similar materials. The divider can of course be made of other materials, such as metal, but a more flexible material is preferable.

The female member 5 has a generally T-s'haped recess 9 extending along the length thereof, the bottom of which is preferably flat. This forms a support and a guide. Male member 7 is T-shaped so as to form a conjugate runner or slide conforming toor approximating the shape of recess 9. The fin 3 and members 5 and 7 are substantially parallel and are integrally joined to form the divider 3,008,581 Patented Nov. 14, 1961 1. The female portion forms a bottom support 2 and a shelf or top supporting means 4.

FIG. 2 shows a spacer generally designated at 11 which is constructed like the divider shown in FIG. 1 except that the rib or fin is left off during the formation of the spacer. Thus the spacer also has a channel or generally C-shaped female member 5 and a generally T-shaped male member 7. The fem-ale member again forms a bottom support 2 and a shelf 4.

A plurality of dividers and spacers assembled to form a sectional filing device 13 are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Assembly is accomplished by telescoping a male member 7 into a female member 5. The resulting sectional filing device as illustrated in FIGS. 3-5 is particularly adapted for functioning as a record jacket holder. The record jacket holding capacity of the sectional filing device may be increased or decreased by simply adding or removing one or more of the dividers. For example, every time one record is purchased, an additional divider may be added to a previously acquired group of dividers, and the record in its jacket may be conveniently stored. Because the record jackets are held in upright positions, instead of being stored under leaning conditions, the records have less tendency to become warped. Moreover, they are more accessible than when piled flat, as is often the case. If it is desired to convert one large group of assembled dividers into several smaller assemblies it is necessary only to slide the sub-assemblies apart between any selected adjacent dividers.

The spacers are useful when it is desired to file thick items, such as mrulti-record albums. The spacers are telescopically assembled and disassembled with respect to the dividers and with one another in the same manner as are the dividers between themselves. While in the sectional filing \device as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, only one spacer is located between two dividers, it will be understood that two or more spacers may be joined together between two dividers to accommodate thicker items.

In FIG. 5, several record jackets 17 are shown as they appear when under examination in the filing device. As illustrated, the jackets can be easily separated at the tops thereof to observe the titles and other information printed thereon. This can readily be accomplished because the chain or concatenation 19 of interlocking male and female members of the dividers and spacers act as a flexible spine and therefore can be bowed, as exaggeratedly illustrated and as can be seen by reference to straight base 21. Also, the fins themselves will deflect. The concatenation partaken of this flexing movement because first the telescoped male and female members 5 and- 7 have some play in a direction normal to their lengths when interlocked rather than forming a perfectly rigid coupling, and second because of flexibility in the material of which the dividers 1 and spacers 1.1 are composed. When the manually separated jackets are released, they automatically return to substantially vertical positions.

While the dividers are locked together, except for a slight amount of play in a direction normal to their lengths, it will be seen that they are free enough for telescopic sliding movement therebetween in a direction along their lengths. On the other hand frictional forces are sufficient to resist loose sliding movements. Thus an assembly with or without jackets in position may be physically picked up as a unit and moved about.

While the dividers and spacers are shown as forming a record-jacket holder, it will be understood that they may serve as a sectional filing device for many types of generally flat items.

While the female member is shown to be channelor C-shaped and to have a T-shaped recess, and the male member is shown to be a conjugate T-shaped, it'will be understood that the female member and the recess therein and the male member may be of other shapes, if desired. The criterion for these shapes is that they shall telescope and be relatively slidable with an amount of friction therebetween sufficient to hold together a telescoped assembly.

An advantage of the strip type of construction for carrying out the invention concerns its ease of manufacture. An extrusion die may be employed to turn out continuous strip of the shape of divider 1, and another to turn out strip of the shape of spacer 11. These continuous strips may then readily be cut into equal lengths to provide the pieces required for the desired assemblies.

The term flexible is used herein to connote a nonshattering material having enough rigidity to maintain articles in the desired vertical positions but having sufficient elasticity to deform as desired and to return to an original position.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As various changes could be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A sectional filing device comprising an assembly of divider units, each unit consisting of a strip composed of an upright fin, a first portionextending transversely from one side of the lower margin of said fin forming a support and a guide, and a second portion extending transversely from the other side of the bottom margin of the fin and forming a runner slidably telescoped with an adjacent guide.

2. A sectional filing device according to claim 1, wherein the material constituting said dividers is in flexible strip form.

3. A sectional filing device comprising an assembly of divider units, each unit consisting of a strip composed of an upright substantially flat fin spaced from the other fins, 'a first portion extending transversely from one side of the lower margin of each fin, said portion forming a bottom support, a shelf above the bottom between the fins and an open guide therebetween, and a second portion extending transversely from the other side of the bottom margin of the fin and forming a runner slidably telescoped in the adjacent guide.

4. A sectional filing device according to claim 1, wherein the guide is of C-shape and the runner is of conjugate T-shape, the bottom of the C-shape being flat.

5. A sectional filing device according to claim 4, wherein the material constituting each divider is in flexible strip form.

6. A sectional filing device comprising an assembly of divider and spacer units, each unit consisting of a length of material forming an elongate bottom support, one side of said support being formed as a first portion shaped as a hollow guide, the other side of said support being formed as a second portion shaped as a runner telescoped with an adjacent hollow guide, some of said units having fins extending upward from said lower portions and the remainder being without fins.

7. A sectional filing device according to claim 6, wherein each unit is of a length substantially equal to that of the others and is of flexible strip form.

8. A divider strip for assembling a sectional filing device from a plurality of such strips, comprising a fin, a margin of the fin on one side thereof being formed as a female member having a recess and on the other side as a male member having a shape conforming generally to the shape of said recess.

member having a shape conforming generally to the shape of said recess, whereby a plurality of said dividers may be assembled together to form said sectional filing device with the male member of one divider being located Within the recess of the female member of the adjacent divider.

10. A divider for a sectional filing device, said divider having an upstanding fin, a generally C-shaped female member integrally joined with said fin along one side edge thereof and having a generally T-shaped recess, and a generally T-shaped male member integrally joined with said fin along an adjacent side edge thereof of a shape approximating the generally T-shaped recess of said female member.

11. A divider for a sectional filing device, said divider having an elongate upstanding fin, a lower edgewise elongate female member having a recess along the length thereof, and a lower elongate male member of a shape along the length thereof approximating the shape of the recess of said female member, the male member adapted to be slidably received in a longitudinal direction within the recess of the female member of a similarly constructed divider, so that two dividers may be joined together with the male member of one in the recess of the female member of the other, the dividers thereby being free for relative movement in a direction along the length thereof, but being substantially locked together with respect to all but a small amount of relative movement in a direction normal to the length of the dividers.

12. A divider strip for assembling a sectional filing device from a plurality of such strips, comprising an extruded flexible plastic ribbon formed as a fin, one side margin of which is of extensive hollow shape forming a guide, the adjacent side margin of which is formed as an extensive slide adapted longitudinally slidingly to telescope and transversely interlock with the guide of a similarly constructed strip.

13. A spacer strip for a sectional filing device comprising a length of material one side margin of which is of extensive hollow shape forming a guide, an adjacent side margin of which is formed as an extensive slide adapted longitudinally slidingly to telescope and transversely interlock with the guide of a similarly constructed strip.

14. A spacer strip for assembling a sectional filing device comprising an extruded flexible plastic length one side margin of which is of extensive hollow shape forming a guide, an adjacent side margin of which is formed as an extensive slide adapted longitudinally slidingly to telescope and transversely interlock with the guide of a similarly constructed strip.

15. A spacer according to claim 14, wherein said hollow shape is of C-shaped contour the bottom and top of which are substantially flat, said slide having a T-shape adapted to interfit with the C-shape of said similarly constructed strip.

16. A sectional filing device comprising an assembly of divider and spacer units, each unit consisting of a flexible length of extruded material forming an elongate bottom forming portion, one side of said bottom forming portion formed as a tubular guide, the other side of said bottom being formed as an elongate runner telescoped in an adjacent tubular guide, at least some of said units having fins extending upward from said lower portions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,109,713 Schroeder Mar. 1, 1938 2,537,565 Wolters Jan. 9, 1951 2,565,823 Pool Aug. 28, 1951 2,800,743 Meehan July 30, 1957 2,902,166 Bahr Sept. 1, 1959 "w et-n was. 

